Wooo, school’s over! Spring break begins. I wanna spend this free time doing alot of stuff, but I’ll probably waste it all sleeping and playing FFXI. One thing I want to get done is to do something with this website. This all text layout is getting boring.
For the first time in maybe 10 years or something, I watched a wrestling pay per view event. It was Wrestlemania XX. Now I’m not much of a wrestling fan. I watch it from time to time when I’m bored. I guess I watch enough to keep up with who’s who’s and all that. What is really surprising was the show was almost 5 hours long. I don’t recall the olds ones I’ve seen being that long. They also didn’t have a pay per view event every month in those days. The old version Undertaker was my favorite and I was looking forward to his “reincarnation”. It turned to be really dull and his match was pretty dull. The other big match I was looking forward to was Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg, but I was incredibly disappointed with that one too, so boring. Turns out Lesnar is leaving to try out for NFL. Anyway, the rest of the show was pretty entertaining and I guess I enjoyed it.
Ok it’s a no brainer when a videogame has become so popular in our culture they make a movie out of it. Sometimes, they produce hits like Mortal Kombat, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, and Resident Evil (hits mean money not that they are good). Sometimes, they produce crap like Super Mario Brothers, Double Dragon, Street Fighter and Wing Commander. I do alot of reading about upcoming movies and some of the videogame rights they pick up give me chuckles and make me shake my head.
Case in point:
The game was an okay gun shooter with terrible voice acting. It was a decent game to spend 25 cents on. But the story was nothing special. Many people don’t even know about this game. Yet, they decided to make a movie out of it hoping they can cash in on Resident Evil’s success. So someone decided to get the rights, and this German unknown director Uwe Boll takes the helm. They give him a measley 12 million to make the movie, but it looks like even less. There was even a time he wanted to splice in scenes from the game into the movie. Every actor is an unknown, and the movie just looked terrible. Can’t say that I have watched it, but the general consensus says it blows. Yet, it made its money back and some change, and Uwe Boll is crowned the king of bad videogame movies.
Uwe Boll goes on to direct another movie based on a mediocre videogame. This time it’s Alone in the Dark, a somewhat known series of horror games that started on the PC. This film was originally a Dimension release with the production company that did League of Extraordinary Men. But they have since backed out, and Boll takes over with Artisan distributing. He’s fortunate enough to get some somewhat better actors with Christian Slater and Tara Reid. Hard to say where this one is going. But looking at the lighting in the trailer, it looks just as low quality as House of the Dead. Look for this movie later this year.
If you think that’s enough for Uwe Boll you’re wrong. He apparently picked up more rights to videogames he plans to direct. They include Bloodrayne, a game where a sexy female vampire is out to fight the Nazis during WWII; Dungeon Siege a generic medieval adventure game; Fear Effect, a survival horror espionage adventure with a lesbian super agent; and Hunter the Reckoning, a team sets out to eradicate supernatural creatures. In general, these were all decent games, none really popular, none really terrible. Most recently, Uwe Boll has picked up the rights to Far Cry, a much anticipated first person shooter that has yet to come out. This guy seems to be a big fan of videogames.
You can look forward to another Resident Evil movie this year with Apocalypse. The movie will be based on the 3rd game of the series and has one of the coolest teaser trailers I have seen. And there are talks already about a third movie, which is a no brainer especially if this sequel does well.
The most recent news is that Dead or Alive will get done. It was talked about for awhile, but it seems definite now because they got director Corey Yuen (The Transporter). The game is a fighting game which features several overly voluptuous female fighters that bounce around in a counterattack frenzy. Dead or Alive doesn’t have much of story, but it seems like they try to have a story but inserting random movie scenes before and after the game. But it’s hard to make out what it’s all about. I guess it’s just a good excuse to put together two of men’s favorite things, sexy women and lots of kung fu.
Jerry Bruckheimer picked up the rights to Prince of Persia and intends to make a movie loosely based on the game. It seems to be made in the same fashion as Pirates of the Caribbean which was surprisingly great, making an original story with a few elements from the game.
Soul Calibur was a going to be made into a movie with Sammo Hung directing it a long while back. But that has since died off, and risen again with Warren Zide buying the rights. Zide is the producer of Final Destination and the American Pie movies. I was actually looking forward to this when I heard Sammo was in charge. I was imagining all his martial arts friends in HK and how great the movie could be. Soul Calibur actually has a decent storyline for a fighting game. Here’s to high hopes for this one.
Tomb Raider 3 may likely be developed although it may depend if Angelina Jolie wants to do another one. Richard Donner once picked up the rights to Crazy Taxi, but no word if anything will happen from that. Columbia Pictures when they picked up the rights for Tomb Raider from Eidos, they also picked up Deus Ex, but nothing has ever been mentioned about a movie.
So yesterday after school, I spent more money that I really shouldn’t have. Went to Fry’s again to get Metal Gear Solid -Twin Snakes for Gamecube because it was 10 dollars under regular price. While I was there, I decided to get some headphones so I can listen to music and loud movies and games late at night and not wake up my brother. I also got some compressed air because they are cool.
Today went to school found out I have a B+ in my math class so I don’t have to take the final. The final was optional. It was a pretty cool class. But I have 3 other finals to worry about. Worst would have to be my computer science discrete structures course. It’s just insane. I think the professor isn’t very good at explaining.
By the way, I been noticing some spam messages being left in the comments to certain posts, which I deleted. Please do not spam. It angers me so.
So my car had trouble starting the other day, but today it’s fine. I suspect it has something to do with the battery. Anyway. I had a math exam yesterday, which I think was pretty easy, but I simply ran out of time and had to rush to finish some problems that I will probably get wrong. It bugs when stuff like that happens. Another thing that bugs is my keyboard. For some reason, using the right shift key with Z, X, or B will do nothing, but it will work on any other keys. I know it’s the keyboard because I tested it on the Playstation 2. So I guess I had to replace it, so I went to Fry’s today and got a cheap Logitech one and replacement ink for my printer. I almost purchased a Logitech MX Cordless combo keyboard and mouse that was 80 bucks, but I talked my self out of it and got a 15 dollar one. I had this Logitech Mouseman Wheel for like 6 years or something. I guess it still works, so I shouldn’t spend when I don’t have to. Speaking of spending when I don’t have to, I also picked up two DVDs today: Narc and Schindler’s List. And I plan to get Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes for the Gamecube later this week. I read that Fry’s will have it for 29.99. I finally beat Everything or Nothing today, but there are still things to unlock. A lot of console gaming lately, haven’t put in any FFXI time. Maybe that’s a good thing.
Had some free time today, and I thought that I haven’t been blogging much lately. So this would be a good time to catch up. March 4th was my birthday. Turned 24. Didn’t do anything special, I was never big on celebrating birthdays. Just another day to me.
Last week was the Oscars. Most people don’t really care much about the Academy Awards, but I always like to watch. Even though winning an Oscar is mostly due to politics and campaigning, I was content with the awards this year. Billy Crystal was pretty funny and did a good show. Jack Black and Will Ferrell had a hilarious bit. And I was pleasantly surprised that Return of the King did so well. Although, maybe it shouldn’t have won all of them…
The Saturday before that I went to a Barbeque at Mat’s. He’s a friend I met as a tester at Square. Had a pretty good time, a few drinks, some food, some bad movies, and some Halo. The week before that went to hang out with Matt (a different one, hence the two t’s as opposed to one t), Morgan, Keith, and Matt’s friends Asher and Nick. We met up at Asher’s because they got a new plasma HDTV. It was sweet. We spent most of the time playing Mario Party and Pacman Vs. (which is the greatest).
Anywho, forward to now. The quarter is winding down at Cal Poly. It’s the last week before finals and I’m nervous about finals. I purchased tickets to go see a Final Fantasy concert in May. It went on sale Friday and I didn’t want to hesitate on getting the tickets as it is only one show. You can find more information about it at Square Enix’s website. Can’t wait to go and listen to the LA Philharmonic play the wonderous works of Nobuo.